[Biblical-languages] Unicode Hebrew on Mac

Peter Kirk peterkirk at qaya.org
Fri Feb 18 19:42:56 EST 2005


On 18/02/2005 21:20, James Ernest wrote:

>Can anyone point me to good advice on Unicode Hebrew on the Mac platform?
>More specifically, I gather that MS Word for Mac under OSx can handle
>Unicode but not Open Type. Are there Unicode fonts that will display Hebrew
>properly (right to left) with Mac Word?
>
>  
>
The problem is actually that Word 2004 for Mac cannot handle right to 
left or complex scripts. It cannot be fixed by choice of font. In fact 
Office on Windows supports at least unpointed Hebrew rather well with 
TrueType fonts like Times New Roman and Arial, but Office on the Mac 
cannot even do this. So the issue is not with OpenType, but with basic 
RTL support.

This is an issue with an infamous history, enough so that the Israeli 
Ministry of Commerce blacklisted Microsoft, see 
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/10/14/israel_slams_the_door/. And 
Microsoft failed to fix the problem in Office 2004. The basic problem 
seems to be that there is such a fundamental inconsistency between 
Word's internal handling of RTL languages (Arabic as well as Hebrew) and 
OS X's system level support for them that, in Microsoft's judgment, the 
cost of fixing the problem outweighed the loss of their markets and 
reputation in an entire region of the world. This was probably a very 
shortsighted decision, because it played right into the hands of rivals 
like OpenOffice, see 
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/11/24/ms_scorns_israeli_openoffice_defection/.

James, the moral for you is not to mix Microsoft and non-Microsoft if 
you want Hebrew support. Either use Microsoft Office on Microsoft 
Windows (actually OpenOffice on Windows should be fine), or on OS X use 
a word processor which is able to use its system level Hebrew support. 
Some are listed at 
http://www.alanwood.net/unicode/utilities_editors_macosx.html - although 
in fact rather few support Hebrew properly, as is clear from the screen 
shots.

-- 
Peter Kirk
peter at qaya.org (personal)
peterkirk at qaya.org (work)
http://www.qaya.org/



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